Sales chief Luca de Meo: “For the first time over a million deliveries in just seven months”

Already more cars sold in China than in the whole of 2011

U.S. model offensive in the premium compact segment

Ingolstadt – AUDI AG has started the second half of the year with further sales growth: global sales increased year-on-year by 9.7 percent in July to around 144,000 cars. The company again managed to boost sales in each of the top three sales regions around the world: by 5.4 percent in Europe, 16.2 percent in Asia-Pacific and 12.1 percent in North America. Since January around 1,013,350 cars with the four rings have been delivered to the brand’s customers, an 11.1 percent increase.

“We successfully managed to continue our global growth strategy in July and for the first time in Audi history exceeded the million mark for cars sold after just seven months,” says Luca de Meo, Member of the Board of Management for Sales at AUDI AG. “This means that we are in a very good position to achieve well over 1.6 million deliveries this year.”

The Audi A6*, the brand’s top-selling full-size model, played a significant role in the positive monthly figures in July. Thanks also to the strong demand for its particularly efficient ultra version*, global deliveries of the model rose by 13.6 percent compared with the prior-year month to around 26,500 units. With the A3 Sedan*, which is attracting large numbers of prospective customers to dealers internationally, the A3 family* accounted for the strongest growth in the Audi portfolio in July, with sales up 52.3 percent to around 25,450 cars.

In the United States too, AUDI AG continues to expand its model range in the premium compact segment, following April’s highly successful launch of the A3 Sedan in the U.S. market. From this month, the model will also be available there as a TDI clean diesel* and sporty S3 Sedan*. In addition, the A3 Cabriolet* and the Q3* compact SUV will go on sale for the first time on the U.S. market at the end of August and will further strengthen the position of the four rings. One third of the brand’s U.S. customers are already opting for an SUV. Across all models, Audi’s July sales in the United States rose by 11.9 percent to 14,616 cars. Since the start of the year, deliveries increased by 13.3 percent to 98,965 units, outpacing the overall U.S. market development. Audi also achieved high growth speed in Canada – with total sales for July up 16.8 percent to 1,935 vehicles.

Following the strongest sales ever in the first half of the year in company history in Europe, AUDI AG also managed to sell more cars in July on its home continent than one year ago. Deliveries increased by 5.4 percent in the past month, with around 63,950 cars handed over to customers. Around 474,000 Audi customers in Europe since January represent a 6.7 percent cumulative increase year-on-year. In July, the United Kingdom (+12.3% to 11,852 cars), Italy (+19.2% to 4,791 cars) and Spain (+12.1% to 3,422 cars) in particular helped further boost the brand on the back of double-digit growth.

South Korea, with an increase of 65.8 percent to 2,861 cars sold in July, has once again spearheaded the dynamic growth for Audi in the Asia-Pacific region. In this strategically important growth market, the prestigious Audi full-size models have proven especially popular. South Korea is today the world’s fourth-largest sales market for the brand’s flagship, the Audi A8*. In Australia too, business for the premium carmaker continues to grow substantially: up 15.8 percent to 1,535 deliveries in July.

In China, the Q3 and the long-wheelbase version of the A6 in particular drove Audi sales over the past month, which the brand closed with an increase of 15.6 percent and 48,279 delivered cars. Almost twice as many customers as in the prior-year month opted for the Q3 alone (+98.4% to 8,052 cars); sales of the A6 L, which is the top-selling Audi model in the market, grew by 20.9 percent to 14,061 units. Cumulative growth of 17.4 percent across the entire Audi range equates to 316,945 deliveries since the start of the year. As such, Audi exceeded the mark of 300,000 units in China after just seven months for the first time and had even sold more cars than in the whole of 2011 by the end of July: delivery totals in the Middle Kingdom in 2011 came to 313,036 vehicles after twelve months.